By Itunuoluwa Adekunle
Alára ní ara kò ro òhun, ìwọ ní o kú aisùn, o kú aiwo, kí lo kàn ẹ? This Yoruba proverb comes to mind whenever I think about events that unfolded in Oyo state in the last 96 hours.
Waking up to “Deji” trending on Twitter and Deji Adeyanju being one of the trending search terms on Facebook was quite interesting as he was one activist I loved to hear from.
Getting on the thread, I saw Deji calling out the Governor of Oyo State, ‘Seyi Makinde for “no tangible project or achievement on ground”.
His exact words: “The way those paid to defend Seyi on SM were hyping him, I thought when I get to Oyo; I will see wonders. All lies, zero substance on ground. Was in Ibadan last year to deliver a lecture at NBA conference, nothing tangible on ground. Was in Ibadan 2-weeks ago, still nothing”.
By the time I got on the thread, different people had engaged the tweet; some for, others against. Many of the reactions were just to enlighten a deliberately obtuse Deji.
Like Governor Makinde always, “we appreciate feedback from people” but in Deji’s case, the feedback was neither constructive nor fact-based. He didn’t support his claims with pictures despite being an “activist” in the 21st century who should know that pictorial evidence would further strengthen his criticism.
He said the governor was “zero work with 100 per cent social media propaganda”. Why didn’t he visit a few of the projects “hyped” online to see if it was indeed zero work?
For me, the interesting part of the whole event played out on Facebook. Deji started his rant with “the way those paid to defend Seyi…”. In 24 hours, Deji’s Facebook post had over 1200 comments. This made me wonder, are all these people paid to defend Seyi Makinde? Can Governor Makinde raise a paid army of 1000 people to defend him in less than 24 hours?
Further digging revealed that over 70% of those who engaged Deji’s Facebook post live in Oyo state, have a sizeable portion of them as government workers, a good number are students or corps members in the state and some are people who have family members in Oyo state.
At this juncture, let me interpret the saying I started this article with; Alára ní ara kò ro òhun, ìwọ ní o kú aisùn, o kú aiwo, kí lo kàn ẹ? It loosely translates to “he who owns the body says he feels no pain yet you keep telling him sorry. Why are you so concerned?”
The people of Oyo State have replied Deji that they are happy with their audio Governor. They have risen with pride to defend their governor. It was indeed a beautiful thing to see.
Deji did set out to malign the Governor’s image but instead proved beyond reasonable doubts, the Governor’s credibility.
At this juncture, kindly allow me play 9ice’s song, “Street credibility” for Comrade Deji.
As Deji continued to rant, to further show that he was indeed ranting, the South-West Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners released a statement saying only Governor ‘Seyi Makinde is “committed to offsetting their outstanding entitlements” and threatened to vote out other governors in the South-West if they continue to owe them their pensions. What other proof does Deji want?
Also, just yesterday, the Governor announced that the Iseyin-Ogbomoso Road will be commissioned in 10 days. If Deji can’t see “anything tangible” in Ibadan, he should visit other regions in Oyo State before calling Makinde an audio Governor.
A lot of residents of Oyo State have taken to Facebook and Twitter to champion their beloved Governor. A lot of projects embarked on by the ‘Seyi Makinde-led administration have been listed for Deji to borrow wisdom but he has refused to be wise.
I won’t do the same. If he actually took a drive through Ibadan and didn’t see any changes like he claimed, then his case is beyond redemption.
My only advice to Deji Adeyanju is that he should leave Oyo people with their Governor. He is an audio Governor but we love him like that and we want him to continue till 2027.
Àwọn ará ìpínlè Ọ̀yọ́ ní ara kò ro àwọn, ìwọ ní wón kú aisùn, wón kú aiwo. Deji, kí lo kàn ẹ?
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